Arbroath 1 Queen's Park 0
Monday 6th September 2010
It looks like Queen’s Park may well be regretting suggesting moving their away fixture with Arbroath from the scheduled Boxing Day date to the first weekend in September as their 1-0 defeat to the Red Lichties means that the Spiders have now lost four league games in a row and five in total.
Gavin Swankie scored the winning goal when he nodded in a cross from his former St Johnstone team-mate and now player/ manager Paul Sheerin with 13 minutes to go. The winger had netted 10 minutes earlier when he curled in 25 yard free kick only for his goal to be ruled out as a colleague had ventured into an offside position.
Sheerin was happy before kick off that the Glasgow club had come forward with the idea and afterwards he was delighted that the Spiders had shown some early Christmas spirit by refusing to score against his team in a first half when they were on top.
Paul Harkins, Michael Daly and Martin McBride all had chances with the home side also surviving a penalty scare when an Ian Watt shot struck an arm to leave Sheerin saying, “A draw would probably have been a fairer result, however we kept a clean sheet again and stuck to the task of getting a goal so there will be no complaints from me.”
The win lifted the Gayfield men to second place in the table whereas Queen’s Park remain stuck in second bottom spot. Head coach Gardner Speirs saw enough to be positive saying, “It was the best we have played during this horrible wee run but we failed to take our chances especially in the first half when we were on top. In the second half it became the first goal is the winner and unfortunately they got it.”
Next up for Arbroath is a top of the table clash with Berwick Rangers whereas the amateurs face a trip to Stranraer to face a Blues side they have failed to beat in the league for nearly ten years.